Monday, June 4, 2012

I recently opened my Etsy Shop, and have since then been trying to work on at least a card or two a day to build up a little more inventory. These are just two of the cards I've been working on lately.

The first one is based on a birthday card I previously made and gave to a friend, as shown here, and the second are a simple set of mini thank you cards, made to order, that you can give out with your own Etsy orders, as gift tags, or just as a thank you to whoever deserves it.

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

When I got into card making, I had no idea about all the fancy tools and accessories that were available for me. Walking into Michael's those first few times was a huge eye-opener for me.

So far, the most amazing card making tool that I came across is probably a no-brainer to most. A score board. I was unable to find any others in town (curse of a small city!) but the Martha Stewart Scoring Board is perfect for what I was looking for.

I got mine for $29.99 (cdn) at Michael's, but it's also available on Amazon.com for $16.00 (usd).

*Note: Link above will always show current price

I haven't had time to play around with it too much yet but I am amazed at how easy it is now to make my own envelopes. That was the one thing I hated about card-making. Now, with my scoring board and envelope tool, I can have a perfect envelope made in less than 5 minutes. It took me a couple of tries to get used to it, but it's very easy to get the hang of.

Three tips for when you're first trying it out (things I wasn't careful with!):

Hold the paper nicely in place - if it moves at all your lines aren't straight.

Don't press too hard when you get to the end of the paper (or if you're using really thin paper) or it will rip a little

Use 'garbage' or scrap paper for your first couple of tries, just in case you do happen to make a mistake somewhere.

Overall, it's well worth the money I spent on it and I couldn't be more pleased with my purchase. I don't know why I even bothered with card making before this.

What is your favorite paper crafting tool?

(Note: This post is 100% my own opinions. I was in no way compensated for this post, nor was I asked to make the post)

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

I'm planning on having my official 're-opening' of VB Creations, both the blog and the Etsy shop, this coming week.

My Etsy shop will be featuring all never-before-seen greeting cards, handmade by me. Everything I've made up until now I feel fits more into the practice category, rather than sell-able inventory, so I'm working on a ton of new stuff. In the past day, I've been working on both feminine and masculine graduation cards and I can't wait to get them posted. (To see a few earlier samples of my cards, here are posts containing some of my handmade cards).

Coming up on the blog, I plan to talk about some of my favorite crafting products, some projects I've been working on since I stopped blogging, as well as talking about organizing your craft space, some Etsy tips, and more.

In the meantime, feel free to browse some of my earlier posted projects.